Giuliani: The Rise and Tragic Fall of America’s Mayor

A new political biography of Rudy Giuliani by reporter Kirtzman, who has followed his career (from prosecutor to mayor to presidential candidate to Trump lawyer) since 1992. Kirtzman’s 2000 book Rudy Giuliani: Emperor of the City narrated Giuliani’s rise to prominence as New York City’s mayor who was praised as well as criticized for his brutal crackdown on crime. Weeks before Giuliani’s mayoral term was up, the Sept. 11 attacks made him an international icon and TV news dubbed him “America’s Mayor.” Giuliani parlayed his new image into a post-mayoralty career selling his legal advice and his name to dictators and Big Pharma, which earned him millions of dollars per month, with speaking fees of $100,000 or more and a $2.7 million book advance. To understand how Giuliani fell from that early-aughts reputational peak, Kirtzman conducted hundreds of interviews for this portrait of a polarizing man brought low by rumored heavy drinking and a disastrous third marriage—and by an infatuation with the Trump presidency that has lost Giuliani his law license and landed him in legal jeopardy and financial ruin.